The present invention relates to the new and distinct plant cultivar botanically known as Monarda didyma ‘Grape Gumball’, and hereinafter also referred to solely as the cultivar ‘Grape Gumball’ or the “new plant”. The new plant was the subject of an open pollination in the summer of 2010 by the inventor at a wholesale perennial nursery in Zeeland, Mich., USA. The seed or female parent was the unreleased proprietary hybrid HK9-43-126 (not patented) and the pollen or male parent was unknown but may have been any one of several plants and seedlings in the isolated breeding area since the pollen is efficiently spread long distances by insects. The individual plant was subjected during the summer of 2012 to initial evaluation in outdoor trial plots belonging to the same nursery in Zeeland, Mich. and was later given the breeder identification number of H10-13-3. Final evaluation was performed in the summer of 2013 wherein a single selected seedling was separated for eventual introduction.
Monarda ‘Grape Gumball’ has been asexually propagated by stem cuttings at the same nursery in the greenhouses in Zeeland, Mich., and the subsequent asexually propagated plants found to be stable and identical to the original selection.